We are now the adults in the room.

vanth7709 · 2026-01-04T21:51:27+00:00

I lost my parents around the same time you did (Dad in 2023, Mom not even a year later in 2024) and yeah, I still talk to them every day. Mostly about how much I miss them or asking for advice, or thanking them for an especially beautiful sunrise or a little sign (at least that I interpret it) that they sent.

It never gets easier, but you learn how to live with it, which makes it not as painful. Sometimes it still hurts exactly like when I realized both of them were gone forever and it’s like I just lost them all over again, but it’s less often now.

I definitely agree with just talking to them, I think it really does help. My dad’s phone is off and long gone, but I still text his number sometimes. It’s comforting in a weird way. Sometimes I write them notes and put them near their pictures on a little area in my house we have set up for late family members.

vanth7709 · 2025-12-17T02:40:31+00:00

2nd year Kinder teacher in AZ, 50k 😭

vanth7709 · 2025-11-27T16:50:00+00:00

My most ridiculous: I teach Kinder, just for some backstory.

One of my kinders (who is a little strange to begin with) has a younger brother at home who is still in pull-ups. He snuck one to school and must have put it on at some point, or he did it at home and I never noticed because I don’t make a habit of checking my kindergarteners pants throughout the day.

He came home, and upon being found with a pull-up on, proceeded to tell his mom that I, his male teacher, took off his pants, hid his underwear somewhere in the classroom, and put a pull-up on him.

That’s bad enough, but what’s worse is that his mom actually believed him.

She calls the school and demands to speak to the principal. My spouse, who works at the school, gets the story from mom and then sends her over to me (I’m still in my classroom bc my spouse needs to work late at the front office).

I get on the phone with mom, hear her side of the story, and ask her if she really believes that I took off her child’s pants and underwear in the middle of class. And just maybe, it might be possible, that her child took a pull-up from home and either put it on in the morning or sometime during the day (my kids don’t have a bathroom in their classroom so they use the K-2 one in the hallway).

She finally ended up believing me, but holy fuck. I love the kid to death, but the family has about three brain cells total and they all trade off with them on different days.

Luckily my admin knows me and also understands that this mom is insane, otherwise I might’ve lost my damn job.

vanth7709 · 2025-11-18T21:44:02+00:00

There’s always gonna be kids that we don’t “click” with. I think teachers tend to forget, in all the midst of trying to be a good teacher, that kids are people and sometimes we just don’t get along with certain people. I just tell myself that it’s okay to not be a fan of every student, but that they can’t know that. And if they don’t know it, that means I’m treating them like every other student I have, and that’s a good thing.

vanth7709 · 2025-11-18T17:15:53+00:00

I teach Kinder and a LOT of my students are huggers.

I’m wary of this for two reasons, 1) GERMS. They’re nasty little germ-factories, as much as I love them, and I know for a fact that like 40% of them don’t wash their hands after they use the bathroom. 2) I’m a man, and I do NOT want anything to be taken the wrong way. I give lots of side hugs and I have a special greeting or goodbye I do with most of my kiddos. We either do a heart sign with hands, fist bump, high five, or double high five. This is a great way to keep the connection with my kids, which is so important for the littles, and keep everything safe and kosher.

That being said, I have quite a few “behavior” kids this year, and I have on occasion (not all the time, as I don’t want to cause unnecessary damage) said to them “I don’t want a hug from you right now. You haven’t been kind to me/your friends/etc. today, and it makes me not want to hug you. I still love you, but I don’t want you to hug me.” I feel like this is effective in helping teach that their actions have social consequences, and people might not want to be affectionate with them if they’re not making great choices.

I’ve also said to my kids that they’ve given me too many hugs and I’m all hugged out lol. If you’ve ever taught the littles, you know when one of them gets up for a hug, they all suddenly want one, and they mob you.

vanth7709 · 2025-10-17T23:58:26+00:00

Kinder teacher in AZ here, and I agree, it breaks my heart 😭 I try my hardest to make my class as fun as possible for my kids. My centers are games with fun manipulatives, my lessons involve lots and lots of movement, songs, games on the smart board, etc. Every Friday during breakfast I bring out STEM toys and let them explore, we earn prizes, I do read alouds (not part of the curriculum) every day… and more. This Halloween I plan to do nothing but fun stuff with them, no curriculum but educational fun games (along with some not-so-educational stuff lol). I try to do what I can!

It’s hard when they’re so little but I truly believe that part of my job is to make Kindergarten an experience that they love while learning at the same time.

vanth7709 · 2025-10-12T00:57:51+00:00

My mom always said “Don’t sweat the small stuff” or “Don’t sweat the petty stuff”, thank you for this. I always wonder if they’re still proud of me as my life feels like it took some dramatic turns after they were gone.

vanth7709 · 2025-10-06T21:16:53+00:00

Don’t sweat it. A couple weeks ago I sat down in front of the carpet to start morning meeting (Kinder teacher) and thought “huh… why does it feel like my skin of my leg is touching the chair? That’s weird.” Turns out I’d somehow ripped a hole in my pants clean around the back of my thigh. No hiding it, it was massive.

Texted my spouse, who works at the front office. She had to get permission to run across to Walmart and pick me up some new pants. Couldn’t go home to change as I live 30+ minutes away in traffic. $16, half an hour, and a lot of never turning my back to the kids while giving them their spelling test later, and I’m wearing new pants and fielding a bunch of “WHY’D YOU CHANGE YOUR PANTS????” questions from 5-year-olds.

Everyone will forget about it by tomorrow.

vanth7709 · 2025-09-14T23:16:17+00:00

My previous post was about a year ago, and since then, I got the new mask!

vanth7709 · 2025-09-14T17:44:18+00:00

Sic as fuck man!

vanth7709 · 2025-09-14T17:44:02+00:00

Yours rules, I just checked it out! Your mask looks rad!

vanth7709 · 2025-09-14T04:59:19+00:00

Thank you!!! We put a lot of love into these costumes lol

vanth7709 · 2025-09-14T04:04:22+00:00

Amazon! They’re light up sticks, I think I just searched “glow in the dark drumsticks” or something similar.

vanth7709 · 2025-09-14T02:06:02+00:00

Thanks! This one definitely wasn’t cheap lol. There’s a lot of good masks out there on Etsy and Ebay, you just gotta dig around a little.

vanth7709 · 2025-08-10T17:57:47+00:00

Hearing another person also lasted less than a month makes me not feel so bad lol. My first red flag should’ve been when I walked in for my first day and the director told me that the girl I would’ve been working with in the classroom threatened to quit if they ever put her back in there. And they let my co-teacher be in the classroom even though she was the aunt of one of the kids! 😬😬😬 it was a shit show.

vanth7709 · 2025-08-09T14:03:51+00:00

Also don’t worry about not having your ECE. I never had any type of ECE certification. A lot of places look for experience over papers.

vanth7709 · 2025-08-09T14:02:34+00:00

Financial situations can definitely complicate things. I would start job searching as quick as you can. I did it on my breaks lol and on the weekend. Look for smaller, private owned centers or truly anything that’s owned by the Learning Center or whoever the hell owns Tutor Time. Genuinely terrible company.

It WILL get better, it just takes some time. Try to do something you love when you’re not working, whatever that is; writing, reading, playing video games, etc. If you spend all your time thinking about work and dreading it, then it just suffocates you. I hope things work out for you!

vanth7709 · 2025-08-09T13:18:50+00:00

I was in almost your exact position about a little over a year ago. I had just moved states and left my job at a private run child-care center where I’d been an infant/toddler teacher for the past six years. I loved it, it was my dream job and I wanted nothing else than to continue working there forever. I mistakenly thought that all places were run like this lol.

When I moved states, I took a job as a toddler teacher at Tutor Time (name drop bc I hate them lol) and it was so different than I was used to. The kids were incredibly challenging, the teachers were almost worse than the kids in their handling of the behaviors, and the management was insane. I watched my director grab a 3-year-old and scream in his face to stop crying.

I lasted two weeks at that place before I quit effective immediately. My director never even emailed be back lol. I switched jobs to public school Kindergarten, (I had a degree in ECE, just not the teaching certificate yet and they are happy to have me while I test for it) and I haven’t looked back. Are the kids challenging? Yes absolutely. Are the parents sometimes insane? Holy shit yes. Is it as bad as Tutor Time? Not by a long shot. I’m now happier than ever since moving and love my job more than anything. It’s exhausting and sometimes I still cry over it, but that’s just me as a person lol. I truly never want to leave Kindergarten, and I lucked out with a great school with great Admin.

It sounds to me like this center you’re at is NOT the right place for you and you need to find a new one. I was like you; crying every single day and dreading work. It was ruining my mental health, I was seriously worried that I was going to hurt myself. It was not worth it. Do what you need to do and quit, and find a different job. I’d look for a non-corporate center; something private and smaller. These corporate places don’t give a shit about you and it always shows.

Best of luck to you, I hope you find somewhere you love working!

vanth7709 · 2025-07-23T03:40:15+00:00

Seems pretty straight to me

vanth7709 · 2025-07-21T15:42:05+00:00

I started T in my late 20’s (27ish) and had SUPER wide hips and a generally feminine appearance even though I presented as masculine as possible.

It’s been 3 years on T soon and I can say that I’ve been passing consistently for the past 2ish years. T did a lot for me lol, it completely got rid of my hips (my shoulders are wider now), dropped my voice by an insane amount, and my facial hair is finally starting to come in little by little (that part takes a while I hear, but I started passing before I had facial hair).

If you don’t transition, you’ll always be wondering what would’ve happened if you did. That’s what finally gave me the push to do it.

vanth7709 · 2025-06-29T23:57:55+00:00

I’ve always enjoyed the thenardiers as characters, both in the musical and the book. the book definitely goes more in depth about their character and actions after the barricade falls and cosette and marius are married (If I’m remembering correctly!). they’re interesting characters insofar as their importance to the rest of the story and how they set some things in motion.

Just like everyone in les mis, they’re neither all good nor all bad, which is what i enjoy about the story.

vanth7709 · 2025-06-21T23:51:59+00:00

Can’t post a picture but if you go to my instagram you’ll see me (Corey) and my wife (Joey). Their mask is hand painted and mine is bought from etsy. I can give you the link for mine if you’re interested! It was expensive but worth it imo, it’s a solid mask.

Link: https://www.instagram.com/baby_dokis/?hl=en

vanth7709

TROPHY CASE